Content:
- Law no. 93/2019
- Law no. 89/2019
- Decision no. 262/2019
- Emergency Ordinance no. 26/2019
- Order 2165/837/743/2019
Law no. 93/2019
Law no. 93/2019, published in the Official Gazette Part I no. 354 of May 8, 2019 approving the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 96/2018 regarding the extension of certain deadlines and for the amendment and supplement of several normative acts, brings the following clarifications:
Comment: This Law amends and supplements the following normative acts as shown below:
- Law 53/2003 – Article 56 (1) (c) adds, as an exception, the situation in which the female employee is entitled to opt in writing for the extension of the individual employment contract, until she reaches the age of 65, in 30 calendar days prior to the fulfilment of the standard retirement age and the minimum contribution stage;
- Law 53/2003 – Article 56 of Law 53/2003 adds paragraph 4, which regulates the maximum period of 3 years in which the employee may be maintained on the same position over the standard retirement age, by extending the individual employment contract on an annual basis.
- Law 279/2005 on apprenticeship at the workplace adds that if an apprentice terminates their apprenticeship contract for reasons attributable to them, the apprentice shall be allowed to enrol in another apprenticeship program only after 2 years from the termination date of the first apprenticeship contract.
Law no. 89/2019
Law 89 / 02.05.2019 published in the Official Gazette Part I no. 340 of May 3, 2019 amending and supplementing the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 on maternity leave and monthly child-raising allowance, and establishment of measures for the recovery of debts representing child-raising allowance.
Comment: This Law amends and supplements Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 as follows:
- Introduction of art. 91 which establishes: the amount and the monthly child-raising allowance may not be less than the amount of the monthly allowance received for the previous child, “when the person who benefited from maternity leave and allowance gives birth to one or more children or when they are in a new situation from the ones listed in Art. 8 (2) within a period of up to 12 months after the end of the previous leave.”
- Art. 16 (3) (c) is amended and shall have the following wording: “c) The net amount of taxable income that can be obtained, during a calendar year, from the performance of a professional activity during maternity leave is increased to five times the minimum allowance established in Article 2 (2).“
- Article 25 (1) is amended as follows: The employer is obliged to approve the maternity leave up to the age of 2 years and respectively 3 years for the disabled child and approve at least one month of the total maternity leave to individuals who did not opt to benefit from this right.
- Letter (c) is added to Article 25,and shall read as follows: “The employer is prohibited from dismissing an employee who benefits from maternity leave, as established in Article 11 (1) (a).” We mention that Art. 11 (1) (a) of GEO no. 111/2010 refers to individuals who request at least one month of the total maternity leave.
- Article 25 is supplemented as follows: – Paragraph (5) mentions that the employee wishing to benefit from the insertion incentive “must notify the employer in writing at least 30 days before the intention of returning to work.”
– Paragraph (6) “The employer is prohibited to restrict the access to the insertion incentive established in Art. 7 (2), if the employee complied with the obligation set out in paragraph (5).”
Decision no. 262/2019
Decision 262/2019 published in the Official Gazette Part I no. 333 of May 2, 2019 for the approval of the Methodological Norms for the application Law no. 202/2002 on equal opportunities and treatment between women and men, brings the following clarifications:
In order to prevent, combat and eliminate any behaviour defined as gender discrimination and in order to ensure equal opportunities and treatment between women and men, the employers have the following obligations according to the law:
a) to explicitly state in their company policy that any behaviour defined as discrimination based on criteria related to gender is prohibited and ensure that all employees are informed and made aware of these provisions;
b) to ensure that all employees are permanently informed regarding their rights related to equal opportunities and treatment between women and men in employment relationships, information which has to be provided through all possible means of communications: meetings, to ensure using all possible means of communication (e.g. meeting, flyers, etc.)
c) to draft an internal procedure including the institutional circuit, detailing the necessary steps to be taken and to immediately inform the public authorities empowered to enforce and monitor compliance with the legislation on equality of opportunities and treatment between women and men.
b) to ensure that all employees are permanently informed regarding their rights related to equal opportunities and treatment between women and men in employment relationships, information which has to be provided through all possible means of communications: meetings, to ensure using all possible means of communication (e.g. meeting, flyers, etc.)
c) to draft an internal procedure including the institutional circuit, detailing the necessary steps to be taken and to immediately inform the public authorities empowered to enforce and monitor compliance with the legislation on equality of opportunities and treatment between women and men.
In order to prevent, combat and eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace, employers must implement the following preventive and proactive measures:
a) draft a clear internal policy in the field of employment relations, aimed at eliminating tolerance towards workplace harassment and anti-harassment measures;
b) implement projects, training programs, information campaigns to ensure a common understanding of the internal policies on harassment at the workplace and they ways to report such a situation;
c) provide information and training sessions specializing in the field of equal opportunities and treatment between women and men for the management team of the company and other management positions;
d) promote an attitude based on mutual respect and good collaboration that generates professional behaviour at any time, including in out-of-office and off-hours meetings and, as well as in the on-line environment;
e) inform employees about the procedure for submitting a complaint of sexual harassment/inappropriate behaviour at work and the procedure for settling complaints filed by the injured parties.
b) implement projects, training programs, information campaigns to ensure a common understanding of the internal policies on harassment at the workplace and they ways to report such a situation;
c) provide information and training sessions specializing in the field of equal opportunities and treatment between women and men for the management team of the company and other management positions;
d) promote an attitude based on mutual respect and good collaboration that generates professional behaviour at any time, including in out-of-office and off-hours meetings and, as well as in the on-line environment;
e) inform employees about the procedure for submitting a complaint of sexual harassment/inappropriate behaviour at work and the procedure for settling complaints filed by the injured parties.
Emergency Ordinance no. 26/2019
Emergency Ordinance 26/2019 published in the Official Gazette Part I no. 309 from April 19, 2019 amending and supplementing certain normative acts, brings the following clarifications:
Comment: This Ordinance amends and supplements the normative acts as follows:
✔ Law no. 52/2011, governing the occasional activities carried out by day workers, as follows:
- Art. 1 (3) (a) Public institutions are not beneficiaries as provided by the present law, with the exception of communal management services directly managed by local councils and botanical gardens subordinated to universities, for the activities provided under Art. 13 (1) (g) and (i) respectively for: raising and breeding of semi-domesticated or other animals – class 0149 and landscape care and maintenance service activities – planting, parks and gardens maintenance, except for private living accommodations – class 8130;
- Article 4 (4) is amended and now the period in which a day worker may carry out activities in the field of agriculture, for the same beneficiary, is of maximum 180 days during a calendar year.
- A new article is introduced, art. 4 1 which stipulates that starting with December 20, 2019 shall be established the Electronic Register for day workers. This shall be the only means to record and submit data regarding the day workers. “The methodology regarding the drawing up and submitting of the Electronic Register for day workers, as well as the recordings made therein, shall be established by order of the Minister of Labor and Social Justice, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, within 60 days from the implementation date of the Register.” The obligation to draw up and submit the Register is set out in Article 5 (2), as supplemented.
- Article 5 (2) (b) shall be amended as follows: The Beneficiary must “send the Electronic Register for day workers to the Territorial Labor Inspectorate before the beginning of the worker’s activity.”
- The remuneration paid to day workers is subject to income tax, in accordance with Article 7 (1), and social security contributions, in accordance with Article 9. Thus, Order 26/2019 regulates the obligation to ensure day workers in the public pension system. However, day workers do not benefit from health insurance, which remains optional.
- The beneficiary shall calculate, report and pay the income tax and social security contributions for the remuneration paid to the contracted day workers.
- For the remuneration paid to day workers, the beneficiary does not owe the work insurance contribution.
- In accordance with Article 9 (4) and (5), the day workers are not insured in case of work accidents or for occupational diseases. In case of work accidents or occupational diseases, in accordance with paragraph (5), “the beneficiary must cover all the expenses for the medical care needed.”
- Article 13 is supplemented with the letters (d) – (l) representing new areas of activity in which day workers can be contracted on an occasional basis: d) organization of fairs, conferences and exhibitions – group 823
e) advertising – group 731;
f) artistic performance – shows – class 9001, – artistic performance support – shows – class 9002 and management of performance halls – class 9004;
g) raising and breeding of semi-domesticated or other animals – class 0149
h) catering for events – division 5621
i) landscape care and maintenance service activities – planting, parks and gardens maintenance, except for private living accommodations – class 8130
j) restaurants – class 5610;
k) bars and other beverage serving activities – class 5630;
l) zoological and botanical gardens and natural reservations – class 9140
✔ Law 227/2015, regarding the Fiscal Code, is updated for the implementation of the amendments to Law 52/2011 and in addition:
- Article 180, paragraph (2) is amended with the mention that the calculation basis of the social health insurance contribution shall take into account the value of the valid minimum gross wage per country “at the legal filing deadline of the statement provided in Article 120” if the statement set out in Article 174 (2) is filed on time or „at the legal filing deadline of the statement set out in Article 120, multiplied by the remaining number of months until the legal filing deadline of the statement provided in Article 122, including also the filing month of the statement” after the legal filing deadline has passed.
- The natural persons referred to in Article 180 (1) (b) and (c)”owe the social health insurance contribution for 12 months, based on a calculation basis of 6 valid minimum gross wages per country in force at the filing date of the statement provided in Article 174 (3), irrespective of its submission date.”
- The natural persons referred to in Article 180 (1) (b) and (c) are insured for 12 months from the submission date of the statement referred to in Article 174 paragraph (3), unless they submit a new statement in the next period.
✔ Law 53/2003, Labour Code, is supplemented by a new article, 1471, which offers to employees who undergo an “in vitro” fertilization procedure, an additional annual leave, of 3 free paid days, based on an request and a medical letter, as follows:
a. 1 one day for oocyte retrieval;
b. 2 days starting with the date of the embryo transfer.
Order 2165/837/743/2019
Order 2165/837/743/2019 published in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 404 of May 23, 2019 for the approval of the template, content, filing and management of the 112 form “Statement regarding the payment obligations for social contributions, income tax and nominal record of insured persons”
Comment: The form allows the implementation of the changes brought to the Fiscal Code, related to the remuneration of day workers and indemnities based on internship contracts.
Thus, there are two new types of insured for day workers and for internship.
Sections relating to the distribution of parts of the income tax to private scholarships, as well as for the support of a non-profit entity / worship house were also amended.